"Columbo" A Stitch in Crime (1973)

Director:

Hy Averback

Writers:

Richard Levinson (creator) &
William Link (creator) ...

TV Series:

"Columbo" (1971)

Original Air Date:

11 February 1973 (Season 2, Episode 6)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

A surgeon has an ingenious plan for murdering his partner in a research project, but a nurse catches onto the scheme.

Plot Keywords:

Nurse | Surgeon | Murder | Detective | Doctor

Cast

Peter Falk	...	Columbo
Leonard Nimoy	...	Dr. Barry Mayfield
Anne Francis	...	Nurse Sharon Martin
Nita Talbot	...	Marcia Dalton
Will Geer	...	Dr. Edmund Hidemann
Aneta Corsaut	...	Nurse Morgan
Jared Martin	...	Harry Alexander
Victor Millan	...	Detective Flores
Ken Sansom	...	Paul (as Kenneth Sansom)
Murray MacLeod	...	Dr. Simpson
Leonard Simon	...	Dr. Michaelson
Ron Stokes	...	Tom
Patsy Garrett	...	Cleaning Woman

Runtime:

USA:73 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-7 (2005) | USA:Unrated

Company:

Universal TV

Goofs:

Continuity: When Columbo is in Dr. Barry Mayfield's office, just before Columbo bangs the thing down on the desk, his arm positions change.

Quotes:

Dr. Barry Mayfield: Maybe Marcia knows more than she's telling.
Lt. Columbo: Oh, actually I think she knows less than she's telling.

Soundtrack:

Sunday Mystery Movie Theme

A movie that handles its usual formula really well.

Of course every Columbo movie is a cat and mouse play between the Lieutenant and the killer but in this movie this is perhaps more the case than in any other Columbo movie. This is mostly due to Leonard Nimoy and Lt. Columbo gets on his back pretty early on during their first meeting already. There is some great interaction between those two. It's great also to see Columbo get angry for once.

Leonard Nimoy is actually one scary looking dude and he has a great villainous look over him. Too bad he never really made a career as playing villains, I'm sure he would had been just perfect for it. He shows some great acting skills in this movie. Also Peter Falk is great once more as the scruffy Lieutenant, that also suffers from insomnia and is ill (again) this time. There is always something unusual going on with him.

The movie features all of the usual Columbo ingredients and it handles them well, so therefor this movie can be regarded as a simply good and also definitely above average Columbo entry. Also the amount of relieving comedy is just enough to also regard this movie as an entertaining one, without loosing any of its credibility as a murder-mystery.

The movie its story is using a fine setting of an hospital, that seems to really suit murder mysteries. It's like the story is really much special but its strong enough to keep you interested throughout. The killer himself is also definitely clever enough to provide the movie with some good clever moments. It's also all being told in a good quick pace, which makes the movie perfectly good to watch. It's one fine put together movie. It's definitely a step up from Hy Averback's previously directed Columbo movie "Columbo: Suitable for Framing". Also makes it sort of too bad that Shirl Hendryx never delivered any more Columbo screenplays. As a matter of fact he hardly wrote anything again after this and it seems to me that it was more of a writer who wrote stage-plays instead.

A great Columbo entry that follows the usual formula and does very little wrong doing so.

8/10